Schoolboy murdered in the street at Buntingford

London Daily News
19/10/1911

Dundee Chronicle 21/11/1911

Violent street crime is rare and when it happened in the past it was covered in newspapers all over country. Lisa is researching the Buntingford Tragedy back in 1911 for her father in law (Clive Hitch) as it was his uncle (George Hitch) which was murdered by a Mary Boddy.   She says she has some old news paper copy's of the little boy and his grave and would like to trace the originals of the photos, which will be far clearer.

Does anyone have any ideas as to where such pictures might have survived? The local papers, which may have included the pictures, are not yet on the British Newspaper Archive and even if they were the quality would not be very high.

More about Buntingford

Jackson, Butchers, Buntingford

Buntingford

Last October I added a page to the main site about the Jackson family of butchers from Buntingford based on some old invoices, as an example of how interesting ephemera can be when it has survived (which rarely happens). Alison recently wrote to tell me that the invoices (and much more beside) had all been kept by a Jeffery Smith, of Buntingford and I have added details to the Jackson page.

Old News

Alison also drew my attention to the Facebook site on which she is posting news items from the Buntingford and North East Herts Gazette from 1923 to 1940. She says: Not only does it give a fascinating insight into how the town was run with accounts of how the various prominent local citizens (who often served on half a dozen or more committees) gave selflessly of their time to serve on various committees like the Poor Union, the Rural District Council, the various church councils, the burial ground committee, assorted fundraising committees particularly for the Royston Hospital, the Nursing Fund and so on, but it also gives details of funerals and who attended (most useful for genealogical research) sports results, types of entertainment, advertisements for local businesses, Petty Sessions. It takes me some time to do the uploading because I read every word! But it paints an intimate picture of life in the town at that time.

Buntingford Update

I am always happy to encourage local historians to set up pages for the towns and villages where they live - as they can provide more detailed coverage than I ever could. I was therefore delighted to hear from Alison that her Buntingford In Old Photographs Facebook page is proving very popular with 1847 photographs uploaded so far.

In connection with Buntingford Pictures lost in fire - Can you help? she reports: "I am happy to report that I have uploaded photographs of his grandfather Sidney and his three children - Sidney, Joan and Elsie - onto my Buntingford in Old Photographs Facebook page."

She also writes: "You featured invoices from Jackson butchers - there are photographs on my Buntingford in Old Photographs Facebook page of Arthur and his son Harry and a wonderful display of Christmas fare, and Walter Jackson's butcher's shop. Harry was a keen photographer and I have uploaded some of his work, and photos of his wife Betty."

A Buntingford Butcher sells cheap meat ...

On 22nd December, 1907 Arthur Jackson, a family butcher of Church Street, Buntingford, supplied Mr. Smith with the following items.

1 lb 11 oz      Pork      1s 1d

 1lb 8 oz    Sausages    1s

6 lb 11 oz   leg mutton   5s 7d

Total    7s 8d

The mutton works out (in modern measurements and currency) at about 10p a kilo

In fact Arthur was just one of three brothers who were butchers in Buntingford - the sons of Henry Jackson, who was the landlord of the Sword in Hand, Westmill. For more information see JACKSON, Butchers, Buntingford

Buntingford Pictures lost in fire - Can you help?

 A plea for help has recently appeared on Rootsweb relating to Buntingford and I have decided to repeat it here

"Beedan" (beedan@ozemail.com.au) is looking for photographs taken by a Mr Philip Plumb and writes: My Grandfather lived in Buntingford 1925 -1932. I have a copy of his extensive his obit which is the only info I have on his life. All our family photos were destroyed in a fire here in Australia in 1960 (moved to Australia  in 1954) I am sure that there are photos of my father and his siblings available during their time in Buntingford. I want to try and find someone in Buntingford who would be willing to help me.  

Obviously most of the pictures on Buntingford on my site show the place before his grandfather was there, but perhaps someone has the right contacts to see what is available. I am asking Beeden to supply some more information on the people who might appear in pictures by posting details as a comment.

There is an additional general point. Have you digitised you old family photographs, with documentation to identify the subjects, and made multiple copies to be held by different members of the family in case tragedy strikes ...

Buntingford pages upgraded

I have carried out a major upgrade of the Buntingford pages, so there is now a dedicated menu and several pages of information/pictures.